NEW YORK, May 11 — Wall Street stocks were mixed early today in choppy trading following another report that showed elevated inflation, increasing expectations for more Federal Reserve monetary tightening ahead.
The annual inflation increase slowed slightly in April, but the month-over-month increase in prices exceeded expectations. Overall, prices are up 8.3 per cent over the last 12 months. “The market is desperately looking for any relief on the inflation front, and that’s not happened today,” said Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments. “Instead of getting relief, meaning less inflation, the market has to digest stubbornly high inflation.”The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.3 per cent to 4,014.40, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 0.1 per cent to 11,724.22.
Stock futures had been in positive territory prior to the report, but then slumped into the red shortly after the inflation data was released at 1230 GMT. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note also pushed back above three per cent, a sign of expectations for higher interest rates. — AFP